The Turks and the Caliphal Army

A defense of Abbasid military policy from a powerhouse of Arabic letters

In the aftermath of a bitter civil war in 3rd/9th-century Baghdad, the Abbasid caliph al-Muʿtaṣim began purchasing Turkish slaves to create a highly trained private militia loyal only to him. In doing so, al-Muʿtaṣim introduced an enduring tradition of enslaved soldiers that became widespread across the region. The incorporation of these Turkish troops into the caliph’s army, however, threatened to throw fuel on the fires of factional strife. With this text, written at the request of a high-ranking official, the legendary polymath and “father of Arabic prose” al-Jāḥiẓ defends the Turkish soldiers’ effectiveness and importance, and in so doing defends the unity and integrity of the army and the value of allegiance to the Abbasid state.

Using the epistolary essay as a rhetorical device, al-Jāḥiẓ conceives a debate between his patron, al-Fatḥ ibn Khāqān, and an unnamed adversary. With al-Fatḥ as a mouthpiece, al-Jāḥiẓ skillfully contrasts his own reasoned argument for harmony and understanding with his adversary’s impassioned partisan polemics, drawing attention to the common ground—history, geography, religion, and devotion to the Abbasid cause—shared by the Turks and their rivals. While extolling the Turks’ merits as soldiers, al-Jāḥiẓ stresses unity and reconciliation over discord and division. The result is a remarkable essay offering insight into social and political cohesion in the Abbasid empire at its height, and the rifts that threatened its stability.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.